Novalis

German poet, philosopher, and mystic (1772–1801), born Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg. Major figure of early German Romanticism (the Jena circle, alongside Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel, Tieck, Schelling). Author of Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night, 1800), Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802, unfinished), the philosophical Fichte-Studien, the Allgemeine Brouillon (general manuscript), and the Blütenstaub (Pollen) fragments. Died at 28 of tuberculosis.

Enters the wiki via Derrida's *On Touching—Jean-Luc Nancy* (§§4, 13) for two epigrammatic propositions that bookend Derrida's text: "Who would not like a philosophy whose kernel is a first kiss?" (epigraph to §4) and "The authentic philosophical act [echte philosophische Akt] is suicide [Selbsttötung]". The pair — first kiss + suicide — names the structural pair of any philosophical act according to Derrida's §13 closing meditation: "What remains to be thought together is the first kiss and suicide, the principle and the act of authentic philosophy, their youth and their discipline, the act and the action" (p. 303).

Key Points

  • "The first kiss is the principle of philosophy": From a Blütenstaub / Fragment (cited Derrida §13 p. 302). The full passage: "One ought never to confess one's love. The secret of this confession is the vivifying principle of the only true and eternal love. The first kiss in this comprehension is the principle of philosophy — the origin of a new world — the beginning of an absolute era — the act that accomplishes an alliance with self [Selbstbund] that grows endless. Who would not like a philosophy whose kernel is a first kiss?"
  • "Suicide is the authentic philosophical act": also from Novalis's fragments (cited Derrida §13 p. 303): "The authentic philosophical act is suicide [Selbsttötung]; that is the real beginning of all philosophy — where every need of the philosophical disciple [des philosophischen Jüngers] will lead him — and only this act corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of transcendent action [or transcendental: der transcendenten Handlung]."
  • Derrida's reading: the two fragments together name the structural pair of philosophy's "authentic" beginning. The first kiss is the auto-hetero-affection that inaugurates self-and-other simultaneously; suicide is the Selbsttötung that names the same structural impossibility of self-coincidence. Together, they name what philosophy cannot think but must always-already presuppose.
  • Romanticism and idealism: Novalis is between Fichte (whom he engaged extensively in the Fichte-Studien) and the early German Romantic circle. The Selbstbund (alliance with self) that the first kiss "accomplishes" — and that "grows endless" — is a Romantic refiguring of Fichtean self-positing.

Position on the Wiki

Novalis appears via Derrida as a liminal philosophical figure — poet-philosopher whose fragments do the work of philosophical theses. He is cited epigrammatically (not as a sustained interlocutor) but the citations are structurally load-bearing: the first kiss figure runs through Derrida's entire engagement with Nancy on touch.

The German idealism / early Romantic cluster on the wiki (Schelling, Fichte, Hegel, Hölderlin) gives Novalis a natural home. His specific philosophical contribution on the wiki: the poetic-philosophical figure that authorizes Derrida's reading of the first kiss as the principle of philosophy — and that connects to the kiss on the eyes that bookends Derrida's text.

Connections

  • thematized by derrida-2000-on-touching-nancy — §4 (epigraph: "Who would not like a philosophy whose kernel is a first kiss?"); §13 (the first kiss + suicide pair, p. 302–303); closing Salve.
  • anchors the inaugural figure of Derrida's text — the kiss on the eyes / "when our eyes touch" register.
  • engages Fichte — the Fichte-Studien and the Selbstbund / self-positing register.
  • belongs to the early Jena Romantic circle — alongside the Schlegels, Tieck, Schelling.
  • prefigures (per Derrida) the deconstructive auto-hetero-affection — the structure the first kiss names is the structure of différance of the self.
  • partner of Friedrich Schlegel, Schelling (entity), Hölderlin — early German Romanticism.

Open Questions

  • Does Derrida engage Novalis philosophically or only epigrammatically? The two fragments are crucial citations but Derrida does not sustain a Novalis-reading. Is there room for a fuller deconstructive engagement with Novalis's Fichte-Studien and the Selbstbund register?
  • What is the relation between Novalis's "first kiss" and the noli me tangere tradition? Both are touch-figures with theological-philosophical weight; the relation between Romantic-Fichtean first kiss and Johannine do not touch me deserves articulation.
  • Does Novalis's "suicide is the authentic philosophical act" survive a deconstructive reading? The Selbsttötung presupposes a self that can be killed by itself — the very self-coincidence that différance refutes. Yet Novalis seems to name the structural impossibility he asserts.

Sources

  • derrida-2000-on-touching-nancy — §§4 (epigraph), 13 (sustained citations). The two fragments structurally bookend Derrida's text.
  • Novalis, Blütenstaub / Allgemeine Brouillon — the fragments cited. Not yet primary sources on the wiki; accessed via Derrida's citations.